Judicial branch undergoes generational change

Ljubljana, 5 December - A younger generation took over at key positions in the Slovenian justice system with regular replacements in 2017. After two replacements the year before, the Constitutional Court saw another four of its nine judges replaced. Ljubljana Faculty of Law professors Matej Accetto and Marijan Pavčnik and Harvard law professor Klemen Jaklič started serving their nine-year terms on 27 March in place of Mitja Deisinger, Jasna Pogačar and Jan Zobec, while Rajko Knez, a Maribor Faculty of Law professor and a member of the International Court of Justice, succeeded Ernest Petrič on 25 April. The new judges, three of whom are in their forties, were nominated by President Borut Pahor and approved by parliament after cross-partisan consultations in which the coalition is said to have agreed to an ideologically balanced bench in exchange for the opposition helping the Fiscal Council get elected after several failed attempts. Parliament also appointed the new top state prosecutor and new Supreme Court president, both of whom are expected to bring much needed change. Drago Šketa, 48, was sworn in on 4 May as Slovenia's youngest state prosecutor general to date to take over from Zvonko Fišer, and Damijan Florjančič, 62, took over on 15 February as new Supreme Court president to replace Branko Masleša, whose six-year term expired last November.